6-year-old Houston boy died from multiple blunt force trauma

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Autopsy results revealed Wednesday that a 6-year-old boy beaten for hours died from multiple blunt force trauma, with one Houston Police Department homicide investigator comparing the child's injuries to those seen in victims of fatal car crashes.

Tea'Karrous "T.K." Jackson was bruised from head to toe — even on the bottoms of his feet - after enduring an eight-hour discipline session at his father's one-room apartment in Houston's East End, said HPD Sgt. Brian Harris.

"It's not going to be any one thing that caused his death," Harris said Wednesday. "It's a series of various injuries. It's as if someone would have been in a massive car accident."

The autopsy found that the boy suffered an injured kidney, fractured ribs, damage to his stomach and a hematoma on his head, Harris said. The child also had marks on his back and buttocks that were consistent with being hit with a belt, Harris said.

After the beating, which police said began when Jackson didn't fall asleep as his father instructed, the boy was taken to Texas Children's Hospital, where he died at 4:05 a.m. Sunday.

Police found vomit and the child's soiled clothing inside his father's rundown apartment at 4948 Polk near Dumble, just east of downtown Houston.

Not capital murder

The child's father, Alex McGowen Duncan, 34, is charged with murder and remains in the Harris County Jail with his bond set at $50,000. Prosecutors could not charge him with capital murder, which would make him eligible for the death penalty, because T.K. was 6½ years old, Harris said.

According to law, suspects accused of killing a child can only be charged with capital murder if the victim is 6 years old or younger.

Also jailed in connection with the boy's death is Tammyra Lanette Sampson, 30, who is charged with injury to a child by omission because she is accused of failing to get medical help for the boy. She is also accused of participating in the abuse by hitting the boy with a belt, Harris said. Sampson remains in jail with her bond set at $50,000.

In an interview with Texas Child Protective Services, Sampson told the agency she had just moved in with Duncan, her boyfriend of three years, according to CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin. Two of her children who were living in the home, girls ages 11 and 6, were placed in the care of relatives by CPS .

Charges may change

CPS has no history of investigating Duncan or the slain boy's birth mother, who lived in a separate residence.

In 2003, a report of physical abuse involving one of Sampson's children -- a 4-year-old boy -- was made. CPS investigators found no evidence the boy was abused and the case was closed, Olguin said. The boy has not been located, she said.

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The charges against Duncan and Sampson -- who each have lengthy criminal histories -- may be reconsidered at some point, Harris said. Sampson could be charged with injury to a child, or both suspects could be charged with felony murder.

T.K. had always lived with his birth mother, but he asked to spend the summer with his father, who had not been involved in much of the boy's life. His mother, who has no criminal history, never married the boy's father.